ONIONS. 563 



form beds four feet wide, in February, on each of which 

 plant three rows, placing the roots ten inches apart, and 

 inserting the bulb about half its depth in drills drawn 

 lengthways on the beds to receive them. As they grow, 

 earth them up like potatoes : small bulbs become large 

 ones, and produce offsets ; the middle-sized and large 

 ones, large clusters. Under this management, sixty 

 roots planted out in February, produced 360 in the July 

 following. 



The second method is that adopted by John Wedge- 

 wood, Esq. a gentleman possessing very extensive horti- 

 cultural knowledge. He says, " When the Onions have 

 shot out their leaves to their full size, and when they 

 begin to get a little brown at the top, he clears away all 

 the soil from the bulb, down to the ring from whence 

 proceed the fibres of the roots, and thus forms a basin 

 round each bulb, which catches the rain, and serves as 

 a receptacle for the water from the watering-pot. The 

 old bulbs then immediately begin to form new ones ; 

 and if they are kept properly moist and the ground 

 good, the clusters will be very large and numerous ; 

 besides, bulbs grown thus above ground are much 

 sounder than those grown below, and will keep much 

 better quite as well as many others." Hort. Trans. 

 vol. iii. p. 403. 



It will be right, however, in adopting Mr. Wedge- 

 wood's plan, to make the experiment upon the half of 

 one of the beds planted out according to the first 

 method : it will be the means of clearly ascertaining 

 whether the last method is, or is not, an improve- 

 ment. 



The Potatoe Onion is a very valuable acquisition to 

 our gardens, and its cultivation cannot be too strongly 

 recommended. It is most hardy, productive, and of 

 mild quality, equally so with the Spanish ; possessing 

 this advantage, that its roots are perfectly ripened and 



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